Promotional Article

The invention relates in general to promotional or advertising article and method, and in particular to a freestanding promotional insert incorporating valuable incentive gifts, promotional material, and a plurality of removable response or redemption coupons.

Promotional articles and advertising structures play vital roles in today's society. For example, promotional articles may not only inform the public of new products and services to promote sales, but also may serve to educate the public about important not-for-profit causes. In either case, the goals of the device are to attract the reader's attention and stimulate sufficient interest to influence a desired response.

Many vehicles and structures have been developed to meet these simultaneous needs of attraction, interest and response in wide audiences. A typical structure for promotional brochures or freestanding promotional inserts in wide use today includes advertising copy presented on two sides of a sheet of paper or light card stock, with a portion of the sheet configured as removable coupons or reply cards. Often a plurality of such sheets are presented in a single insert configured for insertion into newspapers or other publications.

One such freestanding insert or stuffer suitable for automated insertion into newspapers and the like is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,275,316 (Cleary, Jr.). U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,011,985 (Simson) and 4,428,526 (Riley) show other arrangements incorporating reply cards or envelopes, while U.S. Pat. No. 4,516,793 illustrates a single sheet advertising device including detachable coupons.

Unfortunately, such known structures incorporating coupons redeemable for valuable gifts or other incentives require affirmative action by the recipient to receive the incentive gift. There is also substantial time delay separating the promotional message from the reward effect of the incentive gift. The resulting redemption threshold will reduce or eliminate the interest of many recipients, while the time separation of the impact of the incentive gift from the desired message of the promotion will reduce its ultimate effectiveness. Typical mail-in responses may range from less than 0.1% to 5% of circulation, with greater than 5% being unusual. Thus 0.5% is therefore generally considered average and successful.

These undesired effects may be minimized by using a promotional piece having a structure which directly incorporates the actual incentive gift, thereby providing the desired benefits without any consideration or effort by consumers beyond purchase of their regular newspaper. For example, the structure may incorporate actual sample goods, such as in Cleary (FIGS. 16,17). However, the cost of the goods themselves and of the special processing necessary to incorporate them quickly become prohibitive for mass distribution. Further, it is often desirable to offer an incentive gift that has intrinsic meaning to the message of the campaign, which may not be possible with sample goods for certain types of promotions such as fund raising campaigns.

It is therefore desirable and an object of the present invention, to provide a structure and method for a promotional article which permits alternative promotions within a single promotional piece without mutual interference (e.g., where removal of the coupon does not detract from or destroy other functions), and to minimize the cost to the promoter while maximizing the value to, and impact on, the recipient. It is highly desirable and a specific object to provide a structure and method for a promotional article which permits these goals to be met synergistically to maximize the effect of the resulting promotion for the promoter, the advertiser, and the recipient. Unfortunately, known structures for promotional articles discussed above do not provide the needed structure for such a multi-functional article.

According to the present invention, a structure and method for a promotional article such as a free-standing insert or brochure is provided. The structure includes a plurality of sheets which may be folded and/or bound by conventional techniques into multi-paged insert format. One or more of the pages may preferably be of high quality stock, such as opaque gallery-quality paper of sufficient weight and surface character to receive high quality color reproductions of artwork, scenic views, or other items of visual interest. Such high quality prints may therefore provide the recipient with a valuable immediate incentive gift of framable artwork, which may nevertheless be provided by the promoter utilizing standard printing and handling techniques.

The article may further include on the facing sides of the previously discussed pages standard promotional advertisements for various commercial products and services. By this arrangement, the impact of the advertisement is increased by its desirable proximity to the attractive incentive gift print, while the promotion does not intrude upon or detract from the value of the incentive gift itself.

To maintain integrity of the incentive gift print, redeemable coupons corresponding to the promotional advertisements are included on one or more pages separate from the pages bearing the incentive gift prints and advertisements. In this manner, removal of the coupons or reply cards for redemption will not deface the incentive gift print or detract from its value. Thus, the recipient may simultaneously retain the immediate incentive gift while also responding to the standard coupon incentive offers. It is estimated that redemption of coupons will increase 20% on average, for example from 5.0% to 6.0%. Thus a premium of 40% to 60% may be charged per thousand circulation when the present invention is utilized.

In one preferred embodiment, the reply cards or coupons are provided on the back page of the insert, and are perforated for easy removal. This page may be contiguous with the front cover of the insert in a folded fashion, and may comprise a light card stock to provide a quality cover for the front of the insert, while simultaneously providing a suitable card stock for use in reply cards which meet United States Postal Service requirements for minimum thickness and stiffness.

Other advantages, objects, and features of the present invention will become apparent upon reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is an exploded representational view of a preferred embodiment of the present invention, illustrating removable incentive gift prints and redeemable coupons.

FIG. 2 is an exploded representational view of an alternative embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an opened view of one form of cover which may be used with the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an exploded representational view of a further embodiment of the present invention.

Referring now to the drawings, FIG. 1 illustrates a preferred embodiment of a freestanding promotional insert or brochure 10 according to the present invention. Its structure includes a front cover 31, a back cover 32, and a plurality of inner sheets 21, 22, 23, which are more fully described as follows.

In the embodiment illustrated, each inner sheet includes four separate support faces for printed matter and other indicia. The sheets 21-23 are folded to provide two resulting inner pages, e.g. 21a, 21b. A greater or lesser number of inner sheets 21-23 than illustrated may of course be utilized.

Each of the folded inner pages, e.g. 21b, includes a front and a back side. In the present invention, one or more of the support surfaces provided by the inner pages, e.g. 21b, are used to support a high quality printed reproduction of some scene or item of visual interest suitable for display, such as artwork, scenic views, wildlife, photographs, renditions of historical objects, portraits, etc. Such a scene or artwork shall be referred to herein as a scene of aesthetic interest, and the resulting structure shall be referred to herein as an incentive gift print.

The stock material used to form the inner sheets, which comprise a support for such incentive gift prints, is chosen to provide the necessary qualities for high quality printed reproduction utilizing known printing and lithographic techniques. In contrast to current freestanding inserts, which utilize pulp-added paper which changes colors or fades with time, the present structure utilizes thicker "free sheet" stock having no recycled pulp. Such gallery quality stock will keep its color quality for a significantly longer period, perhaps indefinitely. The preferred embodiment utilizes 50 lb. stock for supporting the incentive gift prints. The sheet may also provide, for example, a suitably textured surface to provide visual intertest to the resulting incentive gift print.

The second side of an inner page, e.g. 21b, may be utilized to support printed matter relating to advertising or other promotion. The paper stock selected for the inner sheets should therefore be sufficiently opaque to permit the printed promotional matter to be supported on one or more of the back sides of the inner pages without visually interfering with the incentive gift print supported on the front side of the page.

As illustrated in the figure, a plurality of such sheets may be assembled to create the resulting free-standing insert 10. For example, the front of page 22a supports printed matter relating to desired advertisement or promotion, while the back side of page 22a provides an incentive gift print (not illustrated). Similarly, the front of page 22b supports an incentive gift print as shown, while the back of 22b supports additional promotional printed matter (not illustrated). When assembled, the promotional material on the back of page 22b, for example, will be opposite to the incentive gift print on the front of page 21b when the recipient opens the assembled promotional article. This proximate juxtaposition of the promotional material with the visually stimulating incentive gift prints results in increased attention for the advertising printed matter, which benefits the advertiser or sponsor of the freestanding insert 10.

In order to provide an immediate gift of commercial value as the incentive to the recipient, the freestanding insert 10 is designed to permit removal of the incentive gift prints so that they may be retained and used as decorative pieces by the recipient. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, for example, perforations 25 may be provided to assist in removal of the incentive gift print. Thus, a print such as 23a may be separated along its junction 24 from the remainder of inner sheet 23 as illustrated. Each remaining print may similarly be removed for future use.

In order to maximize the advantage for the advertiser, the structure of the present freestanding insert 10 further permits use of redeemable coupons and reply cards. However, as part of the present structure such cards are provided without defacing or detracting from the value of the incentive gift prints. One or more ganged sheets 32 of coupons and/or reply cards may be provided in conjunction with the inner sheets previously discussed. In this manner, redeemable coupons 33-35 are provided in a manner which permits the recipient to remove the coupon (e.g. 34a) for redemption without damaging or destroying the value of the printed incentive gift. This permits maximum utilization of the support surfaces provided by inner sheets 21-23, including the advantageous immediate juxtaposition of an advertisement and the high quality print on an opposing page previously discussed.

The resulting freestanding insert or brochure 10 may be assembled by means known in the art. For example, the individual inner sheets 21 may be bound at their center folds by staples or other standard binding techniques, or the inner sheets 21 may be loosely assembled within an outer cover. Protective paper or plastic sleeves may be used to retain and protect sheets 21. The resulting structure may then be utilized as a free-standing insert or stuffer for insertion into newspapers or other periodicals and as a stand-alone promotional brochure.

In one preferred embodiment illustrated in FIG. 3, the freestanding insert 10 is provided with a cover 30 which includes a contiguous front cover 31 and back cover 32 printed on a single sheet of support paper stock. The ganged coupons 34, 35 are provided on back page 32 of the cover, and are preferably separated by perforations 35 to facilitate removal by the recipient. Postal reply cards 33 may also be provided. Cover 30 may be formed of a heavy paper or light card stock of greater stiffness than the inner sheets 21-23, such that the reply cards 33 will comply with postal regulation minimums for such cards, while a quality binder or cover is simultaneously provided for the freestanding insert 10.

FIG. 2 illustrates an alternative embodiment wherein individual inner pages 41, 42, 43 are provided, rather than folded inner sheets. One or more of these inner pages 41-43 may be provided on its first side with an incentive gift print and on its second side with promotional or advertising indicia as illustrated. These individual sheets may then be assembled within a suitable cover 30. It should be understood that the specific embodiments illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 may be combined in a single freestanding insert 10 within the scope of the present invention.

Finally, FIG. 4 illustrates yet another alternative embodiment utilizing a "Z" folded configuration 48 of three or more pages. A sheet of ganged coupons 34 or reply cards 35 may be provided as a separate sheet 45 or as part 46 of the folded configuration 48.

Though the embodiments hereinbefore described are preferred, many modifications and refinements which do not depart from the true spirit and scope of the invention may be conceived by those skilled in the art. For example, the inventions disclosed and claimed are not limited to freestanding inserts, but are applicable to other forms of promotional articles as well. It is intended that all such modifications be covered by the following claims.